There were 11 students in the SRE school-wide spelling bee this morning. There were three 3rd graders, including Will, and some 4th & 5th graders. The students were seated alphabetically by first name. There was another William, but his last name started with a C, so our William was last!
The judges included their principal, the guidance counselor, the gifted teacher & the librarian!
The audience was made up of nervous, camera-carrying parents, the class bee runners-up, and a few friends invited by the class bee winners.
The first word was CAT. Seriously. These are kids who WON their classroom bees with much harder words. Even the words in the warm-up round were more difficult.
Will's word in the first round was DECIDE. Definitely harder than CAT, but not too bad. Will spoke calmly & clearly into the microphone as he spelled his words & asked his questions.
The worst thing about the first round was a hard lesson. One of the students was given the word PAST. He didn't ask for clarification by definition or use in a sentence, and he spelled it PASSED. Bummer.
The next round was still fairly easy. Will's word was CHARACTER. No problem.
I might have missed a round, but the end result is the same.
In the next round Will got WANDERLUST. He asked for a definition. He spelled it
wonderlust. Oh well. He took his misspelling well, and sat down in the audience with the seven students who had gotten out before him.
Three left.
Suddenly the words got really hard. Harder than necessary, really. Words like PRODIGIOUS, EFFLORESCENT & AUGER. and then BROUHAHA, VERDIGRIS, MYRRH. Holy cow!
The next 4 or 5 rounds were full of ups & downs as the last three students all spelled these difficult words wrong. One would occasionally spell a word correctly but then get the championship word wrong, thus bringing all three back up for more. Finally it seems, the list got much easier, and we have a winner who will go on to the County Bee.
Will had a great time and walked away a happy guy ready to get back to Reading class!
Tomorrow brings us Katherine & the BMS Bee!
This service is held every year to honor four U.S. Army chaplains who gave their lives for the soldiers they were traveling with when their ship, the U.S. Dorchester sank. The chaplains gave up their life jackets for those in need, locked arms, and then prayed & sang hymns until the ship went down. Caroline's school choir sang this year. It was a beautiful service, with beautiful music, and a wonderful opportunity to learn about & honor the sacrifice of these four men.
